The Central Government has approved the renaming of Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday approved the proposal and said the central government had "no objection" to the change in names of the two cities in Maharashtra.

The news was shared by Maharashtra deputy chief minister of Devendra Fadnavis on Twitter.

Aurangabad derives its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, while Osmanabad was named for a 20th century ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad. Chhatrapati Sambhaji, the eldest son of warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was the second ruler of the Maratha state founded by his father.

Earlier in February, additional solicitor-general Anil Singh informed the Bombay High Court that the central government had no objection to renaming Osmanabad. However, there was no decision yet on renaming Aurangabad, he submitted.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep V Marne was then hearing pleas challenging a decision to rename the two cities.

The decision to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv was taken by a cabinet meeting of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government on June 29, 2022, hours before Uddhav Thackeray stepped down as chief minister. In fact, it was among the Uddhav government’s last decisions.